The reasons for the belief in the need for perfection of clinical data are carefully nursed myths. The logical shortcomings in Good Clinical Practice are nothing but embarrassing to its scientifically trained promoters. Modern quality management methods, which increasingly degrade the importance of inspections, are described and their application in clinical research recommended. The documentation of procedures to attain acceptable quality levels of trial data is suggested to be standardized into a Quality Declaration. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.